I Am From Poem

I am from a mom who works very hard,
day and night,
so that my three little brothers and I can have a place to call home.
I am from an uncle who I can always count on,
to give me advice when I need it the most,
and to help guide me on the right path.

I am from a small three bedroom apartment
with a patio filled with plastic water bottles to recycle
as well as dog toys scattered all over the floor.
I am from a street I’ve lived on my entire life never moving far
with a small playground outside my apartment with a blue slide with a dragon's head on top,
along with a tire swing and two benches.

I am from the tv shows early in the morning when I was younger
like Tom and Jerry and Pokemon.
I am from games with friends and neighborhood kids,
like tag and cops and robbers.
I would stay up late at night so I can continue to play with my friends outside.
I am from those moments in my life
that helped structured me to become the person I am today.

PUBLISH YOUR OWN BOOK OF POETRY

Editor’s Note

The number one question our editors receive is—what do the editors and judges look for when judging the contest? The number one answer we give is creativity. Unlike prose, writing composed in everyday language, poetry is considered a creative art and requires a different type of effort and a certain level of depth. Of the thousands of poems entered in each contest, the ones that catch our judges’ eyes are the ones that remove us, even just slightly, from the scope of everyday life by using language that is interesting, specific, vivid, obscure, compelling, figurative, and so on. Oftentimes, poems are pulled aside for a second look based simply on certain words that intrigued the reader. So first and foremost, be sure your poetry is written using creative language. Take general ideas and make them personal. In his infamous book De/Compositions: 101 Good Poems Gone Wrong, W. D. Snodgrass imparts, “We cannot honestly discuss or represent our lives, any more than our poems, without using ideational language.”